Thursday, February 02, 2012

who owns shares?

Related to what I wrote about on Saturday about the earnings release, it is interesting to take note of who holds a stake in Schlumberger. The short answer is that the largest stake holders by far are institutional holders and mutual funds. According to the 2011 Proxy Statement, executive management and members of the board of directors account for about 0.5% of total stock ownership. While high levels of insider ownership are often viewed as a positive sign about their faith in shareholder value and control of the company, it's hardly surprising that insiders control such a relatively small portion of the outstanding shares. Given the company's size, age, and lack of family control, it would be unusual for any insider to have amassed even a 1% stake in the company which would be equivalent to about $1 billion. If you dig deeply enough, you'll see that there used to be a member of the board who held about 32 million shares which was good for a 2.7% stake at the time. In the 2008 Proxy Statement, Didier Primat held or controlled those shares until his passing later that year. Unsurprisingly, he was a descendant of the founding brothers. With his passing, it is most likely that those shares are now split amongst several people (who are not on the board) and/or in trusts. The only remaining current board member with familial ties is now Henri Seydoux who is both relatively new to the board (since 2009) and holds relatively few shares (4,500 as of the 2011 Proxy Statement).

Note: All Proxy Statements are publicly available online from the company website (and probably from the SEC).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dow soars

Profit taking on Monday.

Anonymous said...

Dow soars

Another try!